Georgia Bulldogs Game 11 Preview: Charleston Southern Buccaneers
The Georgia Bulldogs will face their only FCS opponent of the year, the Charleston Southern Buccaneers in a tune-up for the finale against Georgia Tech.
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Date: 11/22/2014
Kickoff Time: 12:00 pm
Venue: Sanford Stadium – Athens, Ga.
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network from IMG;
TV: SEC Network
Internet Stream: SEC Network +
Current Odds: Vegas not giving odds on this game currently
I could just give you a rundown of the CSU depth chart, but I want you to keep scrolling. Charleston Southern plays in the Big South conference, but they are no stranger to SEC football.
The Buccaneers lost a heartbreaker at Vanderbilt earlier this year, 21-20. While it wasn’t James Franklin’s Vanderbilt, the Commodores were still an SEC team playing at home. Their other two losses were to fellow Big South teams, at Coastal Carolina, and to Presbyterian, which was Charleston Southern’s homecoming game.
On an interesting note, the Bucs’ first game was against Point University, a 61-9 victory. Point is located in West Point, Ga., my hometown! See, even Big South teams have to play cupcakes. This will be the first meeting between Georgia and Charleston Southern.
Keys to the game:
The prototypical letdown game – an FCS opponent, Charleston Southern, squeezed in between a marquee SEC matchup rivalry game, Auburn, and the annual battle of “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate” with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Coming off the electric win against Auburn, and the news that Todd Gurley was lost for the year, can Georgia deliver against the 8-3 Buccaneers?
Georgia isn’t the only team coming off a big win though. Charleston Southern held off Liberty, 38-36, with a victory that puts them in the FCS playoff race. The Bucs had a 38-23 lead in the fourth quarter when Liberty started making a comeback.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Senior running back Christian Reyes was named Big South Football Offensive Player of the Week after racking up a career-best 188 yards and 2 touchdowns in the game. He is already their career rushing leader with 2125 yards and 16 touchdowns after just two years. His bruising, up the middle runs could wreak havoc – think Florida, not Auburn. The Bucs offense put up a mind-boggling 576 total yards of offense last week, so let’s see what happens against the Dawgs’ defense.
Like most of Georgia’s opponents, the Charleston Southern roster is chock full of Georgia natives, 18 to be exact. Starting quarterback, junior Austin Brown, is a Flowery Branch, Ga. native. He threw for 217 yards last week, but also threw four interceptions. Cue a salivating Quincy Mauger, Domenick Sanders and Damian Swann…
While Georgia doesn’t have a stable of running backs to feature and plug in, Bobo does have able quarterbacks who can step in and throw to the nine different receivers who have caught passes this year, including the elusive Justin Scott-Wesley and Jonathon Rumph, who we saw briefly against Kentucky. Let’s hope we mostly see Brice Ramsey in the second half.
Oct 11, 2014; Nashville, TN, USA; Charleston Southern Buccaneers running back Mike Holloway (27) runs for a first down during the first half against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
The starting running back job has officially been handed off to Nick Chubb with Gurley out for the year. Chubb has already earned four SEC Freshman of the Week honors, along with his SEC Offensive Player of the Week honor after the Arkansas game. He leads Georgia with 1039 yards, with at least three games left.
Charleston Southern is just as stingy as the Georgia defense, giving up just 19 points and 305 total yards per game. They are led by another Georgia native, Aaron Brown, a junior linebacker who leads the team with 75 tackles and 8 tackles for loss. The defense has 14 interceptions, led by Troy McGowens with four.
Game Prediction
While the fans may have one eye on the game and one eye watching Missouri-Tennessee, I hope the team is concentrating on the game being played in Athens. I predict the score in Athens will be 45-14.